Modern organizations concern themselves more and more with maintaining the reliability and security of their computing environments given the pivotal role computer networks play in intra-entity and inter-entity communications and transactions. Various tools have been used by network administrators, government, security consultants, and hackers to test the vulnerabilities of target networks, such as, for example, whether any computers on a network can be accessed and controlled remotely without authorization. Some network security tools can test network paths for possible intrusion. From a testing point, simple commands such as traceroute and ping can be used to manually map a network topography, and determine roughly what network addresses are “alive” and which computers are “awake” on the network (i.e., determine which computers are on and are responding to network packets). A tool such as a port scanner can be used to test an individual target computer on the target network to determine what network ports are open. If open ports are found, these ports may provide access for possible intrusion, and potentially represent a vulnerability that can be exploited by a malicious hacker. Network security tools can perform various tests and scans of computers in a network, performing the scans on all or a portion of the computing environment, for instance, according to a particular scanning session.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.